books read: 2022 july

[meitachi]

Somehow it's August! The summer of YLI flew by, with a couple trips in there. Some reading (on weekends, on the plane) but not as much. August is a bit slower at work so we'll see how much reading I can cram into the month!

1. Want Me by Neve Wilder - Fratboy and a roommate get frisky. It's basically all an excuse for m/m smut in a university setting. There are traces of plot, but not many! The characters are largely likeable but also largely forgettable. The smut is pretty hot and manages to escape being too boring or repetitive.



2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt - New literary fiction I put on my list because of the octopus character! And it was delightful, but thankfully not the main character. Instead, a story about getting older, past generations and lost connections, with an overall poignant and pretty sweet story and ending. A little serious but nothing too depressing. The octopus is a fun character used sparingly.



3. There's No Such Thing as An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura - Translated from Japanese about the main character who just wants a mindless, easy job. It's hinted she's leaving some kind of trauma in the past, but the mystery is really never the point. I really enjoyed the minutiae of the her different jobs! The cracker packaging job was probably my favorite, but all were interesting and enjoyably strange in their own way. There is somewhat of a resolution at the end, and a generally moral message, but the bulk of my enjoyment was in the weird jobs and people she built connections with.



4. The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin - (The Pingkang Li Mysteries #1) Delightful mysteries and romances set in ancient China -- Tang dynasty? Not sure exactly, but it's fun for a historical genre story to not be set in England or the Regency specifically. Overall, well-written with a particular focus on its setting in the small pleasure quarter of the capital city, with some imperial shenanigans in the background. Fairly well-drawn characters who occupy the story. I really liked the hero in this -- silly, affable, but sharper than he lets on.



5. Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick - An m/m romcom fantasy featuring the gay and out Prince of England and the lucky random American guy he meets in NYC. Honestly, how many royalty AUs have I read in fandom just like this? They were better written too, sorry to say. The Queen is such a strange caricature in this. I liked that the American main character is Jewish, but otherwise it was very generic, forgettable, and not terribly realistic even within its own romcom universe.



6. The Guncle by Steven Rowley - Literary fiction which means there is some kind of Dark Traumatic Past underpinning everything, including the generally lighthearted premise of a very gay and somewhat famous actor having to take on the care of his niece and nephew for a period of time. And of course they Grow Together, or whatever. Life lessons are had. The kids were all right, not too angelic, but not quite real to me beyond a plot device for the main character's personal growth and processing. Family ties and growing older are complicated. I didn't hate this but not sure how much I enjoyed it either.



7. The Long Game by Rachel Reid - A reread of my favorite hockey couple, and their delightfully emotional sequel to happy ever after. ♥



8. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - My favorite kind of nothing-happens-at-all story! Just a general reporting from a little English town and reporting on the antics and relationships and love and passing of the residents there. Very much character-driven and they are all foils to each other.



9. Memorial by Bryan Washington - A Black and gay Houston author writing with love (and a critical eye) about Houston! Well, really it's about the couple, a Black man and a Japanese man, and their many mommy and family issues. But not to be dismissive, I really enjoyed the strained and complicated intergenerational relationships and how it rebounded into the couple's dynamics as well. I liked both characters, mostly, but I don't think I was rooting for them to stay together at the end. It was great to see Houston represented in the background though.



10. An Atlas of Imaginary Places by Mia Cassany - An illustrated children's book that was creative and imaginative with fun illustrations. (But maybe One Piece did it better.)



11. The Adventurous Kid's Guide to the World's Most Mysterious Places by Patrick Makin - Another illustrated children's book but featuring real world places, with gorgeous illustrations and interesting facts about these often-unreachable places. Informative and pretty!

In my feels about FFXV Gladio/Prompto right now, revisiting after attending Final Fantasy in concert or whatnot. Maybe I'll revisit Zack/Cloud? Viewfinder? Feeling kind of nostalgic; maybe this is what the hockey offseason does to me. I miss hockey, but fuck, it's also such an awful sport full of awful men.